Tag Archives: LGBTQ Diversity

Today we are excited to celebrate the release of Sparkle Boyby Lesléa Newman! In this sweet and refreshing story, a young boy wants to wear a sparkly skirt like his older sister – but can boys wear sparkles? Sparkle Boy speaks to us all about acceptance, respect, and the simple freedom to be yourself! Continue reading →

Maya Christina Gonzalez is an award-winning author and illustrator. In this post, cross-posted from her website, Maya shares why she decided to make her new picture book, Call Me Tree/ Llámame árbol, completely gender neutral.

You may or may not notice something different about my new book, Call Me Tree. Nowhere in the story are boy/girl pronouns used. No ‘he’ or ‘she’ anywhere! I found it easy to write this way because that’s how I think of kids, as kids, not boy kids or girl kids.

I even requested that no ‘he’ or ‘she’ be used anywhere else in the book, like on the end pages or the back cover when talking about the story. I also asked the publisher to only refer to the main character as a child or kid when they talked about my book out in the world. Because I wanted Call Me Tree to be gender free!